Scientists are on the brink of creating the world’s first artificial life form – a living organism never before found in nature. They promise solutions to everything from malaria to climate change. Salvation? Or a step too far?more...

Biotechnology: 25/50 of 58

A report released by Friends of the Earth yesterday shows that ‘environment-friendly’ farming - including organics - creates more jobs, uses fewer resources and is more profitable than farming using genetically modified (GM) crops.more...

When a group calling itself Sense About Science launched its 'Science for celebrities' pamphlet in the national media last month, it was supposed to look like the long-overdue backlash of a normally passive science community to years of misinformation from ill-informed celebrities.more...

By radically changing the way we acquire our food, the development of agriculture has condemned us to live worse than ever before. Not only that, agriculture has led to the first significant instances of large-scale war, inequality, poverty, crime, famine and human induced climate change and mass extinction.By Clive W. Dennis (winner of the Ecologist/Coady International Institute 2006 Essay Competition)more...

In August 2006, German chemicals company BASF applied to start GM potato field trialsin Cambridge and Derbyshire as early as next spring. The GM industry is making manyclaims about this product, but are these based on the truth? Andy Rees investigatesmore...

The exuberance of childhood celebrated in books such as Just William is now frowned upon as inappropriate behaviour, resulting in more and more children being prescribed behavioural drugs. Rachel Ragg investigatesmore...

For 40 years Percy Schmeiser grew oilseed rape on his farm in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Usually, he would sow each year’s crop with seeds saved from the previous harvest. In 1998 Monsanto took Schmeiser to court.more...